Review : Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth : Embrace Your Dreams

It was late at night, in the middle of Sony’s E3 2015 Press Conference, where a trailer with familiar imagery ended with the voice-over, “For they are coming back. At last, the promise has been made.” And in that moment, dreams finally came true: a remake for Final Fantasy VII was finally a reality.

Words can’t describe the arduous journey it’s been for fans to see Final Fantasy VII, arguably the most popular entry in Square-Enix’s legendary RPG series, being brought up to modern day with the bells and whistles a modern game deserves. From the random tease of the tech demo back at the PlayStation 3 reveal at E3 2005 to Square-Enix’s refusal to do it while instead teasing fans, such as releasing the PC version on PlayStation 4, it was all a pipe dream until that legendary reveal in 2015. And even then, tumult would follow from the announcement that the game would be an “episodic” release and that it would change hands from developer Cyberconnect2 to an in-house production over at Square-Enix. With the company’s spotty track record the decade prior, there was no guarantee a remake of this beloved game could even turn up good. Until it did in 2020.

Final Fantasy VII Remake, while not without its faults, managed to successfully adapt the beloved game to modern day with an expert blend of action and role-playing strategy that built upon the spirit of the original’s active time battle with aplomb. It managed to make a full game out of an initial section that was just 5 hours in the original into something that mostly felt fully complete. On top of that, the game showed a level of daring boldness by Square-Enix to make the game not just a straight remake but a meta-narrative pseudo-sequel that lived alongside the events of the original for something potentially unpredictable. Claims of subversions and false advertising notwithstanding, it made the project even more interesting than just a straight three-game-retelling.

With the release of the second chapter, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, in our hands, how does Square-Enix handle the rest of their re-imagined adaptation of the beloved classic as “The Unknown Journey Continues”?

An Unknown Yet Familiar Journey

Similar to the original game, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth picks up right at the end of Remake, with Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barrett, and Red XIII making their exit from Midgar as they undertake their journey across the planet of Gaia in pursuit of Sephiroth to stop him from fulfilling the goal from destroying the world. If you have played the original game, Rebirth basically covers the rest of the content that was included in the first disc (out of three).

At the end of Remake, following the controversial ending that set the gang on what was seemingly going to be a new “Unknown Journey” through familiar territory after they defied fate, it’s actually pretty surprising how little Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth leans on the concept of telling a completely new tale, at least when it comes to the main plot beats. Similarly to Remake, Rebirth follows almost the beat for beat order of events of this section of the original game with very few serious alterations, just applying Remake’s penchant of fleshing out these towns, mini stories, and areas that enrich our understanding of the world of Gaia and the impact, or lack thereof, that Shinra has exerted on the entire planet. If you were worried that the ending of Remake suggested that you no longer would get to see the rest of the game in remade form, Rebirth at least sticks close enough to the script to feel more faithful than initially advertised.

However, it doesn’t mean that Remake’s penchant to provide deviations to things that were not there originally are not present. While the majority of the time you are going to be playing with Cloud and the gang, the game takes some tiny cues from Final Fantasy VIII for some dual storytelling with a different character (one you have probably seen from the cover art of the game) that builds upon the events of the end of Remake to provide the totally new content that the previous game’s ending suggested. This dual story intersperses very sporadically throughout the entire game, and it takes nearly ‘til the final moments of the game for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth to kind of explain the point of this structure in relation to the rest of the game and how it factors to the ending.

As for said ending, keeping everything as spoiler free as possible, it’s going to be an ending that will have a lot of people talking regarding its execution and what it portends to the final entry in this three-game adaptation of the original game. If you thought the ending of Remake was crazy, you have seen nothing yet. If you are a longtime fan, it’s an ending that plays on your expectations of how events supposedly happen. For new people that play this game with no knowledge of the original, it is gonna be an indecipherable quagmire. It’s an ending that goes big and swings wildly, and it is emotionally stirring in a way only Final Fantasy can manage. At the same time, the jury is out on whether or not the developments of this ending all work 100%, to the point that the third and final entry will have to work extra hard to justify these wild swings. In short, I loved a lot of it while feeling torn about what it ultimately means.

Fellowship of the Synergy

While there is no doubt Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth provides its share of big story moments, the truth is that most of its big developments mostly reside in the later third of the game. Rebirth was always going to have a tricky act to follow from Remake because the rest of what was included on that first disc of the original game was fairly plot-lite, with the main story driver being tracking and stopping Sephiroth who is basically hanging out in the background while the world building takes center stage with Cloud and company visiting the different towns in their pursuit. While the Nibelheim flashback provides an incentive as to why you want to pursue Sephiroth, when it comes to main story beats, the first several chapters of the game find Cloud and company going to different towns to find these mysterious dudes, giving the heroes clues as to where Sephiroth may be. It’s not until after these chapters that more wrinkles, complications, and motivations are added to the story, kicking in all into overdrive before the game’s grand finale. If all you care for is plot-forward momentum, it takes until around the final third before it all really comes into focus.

But even given that plot-forward momentum takes a backseat for the majority of the game, the stories told within the towns you visit, and the relationship-building that happens between Cloud and his companions, are what make up the bulk of the stories you experience in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. Through it’s litany of side-quests, activities, and specific focuses that happen within certain chapters, Rebirth takes a somewhat episodic character-driven approach as the different areas you visit, in turn, circle back and connect with your companions to help flesh them out and make them more fully-rounded, fully-fleshed out characters. If anything, the ratio of plot versus character building reminds me strongly of BioWare’s Mass Effect 2, a game beloved due to its focus on character building instead of plot-heavy focus. It’s to the point where the character interactions, paired with the excellent writing, help solidify the Final Fantasy VII cast as one of the very best in the series, something many already considered with the original game. And this point is clinched, here, with the time Rebirth takes to make the characters so compelling, which is felt more-so when the ending sequences come around.

It helps a lot that the fleshing out of your companions ties so well to the organic way Rebirth ties your companions to the gameplay mechanics via the new “Synergy” system. Combat in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth takes the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, ensuring that the excellent, borderline peerless action/tactical hybrid of Remake makes it unscathed and expanded to the new game. While functionally the same as the previous game, the extra additions go as far as making the first game feel like a rough draft. The amount of tactical options at your disposal now can be overwhelming, and the way the game fully reemphasizes your pursuit to both Pressure and Stagger enemies which, in turn, requires the use of Synergy attacks with your companions to achieve, circles back on the importance of building up your party.

Achieving synergy with your teammates improves your relationship with them, and improved relationships further makes executing said moves an easier tool in your arsenal. That’s not even mentioning the cinematic prowess on display as the spectacle of the teammates succeeding in unison never gets old. It makes combat sing in ways the original game merely hinted at, and, while some may decry that it’s a bit much compared to how relatively simple the system worked in Remake, in my eyes it kept the combat fresher throughout my entire run on top of feeling the satisfaction of the party clicking together in this adventure.

A Gaia of Endless Possibilities

Ask many people that played the original game back in 1997, and the exit from Midgar, as it transitioned to its open world, is considered one of the more awe-inspiring moments in gaming. It was a moment where a game was confined to this wildly detailed and story-packed initial area, but it gave way to a bigger world and a bigger adventure than expected, where the true meat and variety of the game resided. It is funny looking back to that original 1997 game and realizing how a lot of imagination carried the weight of such a barren world when looked at from a modern lens. One of the biggest strengths for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is taking the idea of the massive, varied world implied in that original game and finally adding the kind of detail at a massive scale that lives up to the imaginations many had when they played the original.

I don’t think, at first glance, that people are ready for the sheer size and scope of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. Considering the relative quick turnaround with this game some 3-4 years since the confined and highly detailed Final Fantasy VII: Remake, it’s quite impressive what Square-Enix’s CBU1 team was able to achieve in such a small time period. The scale of Rebirth is sometimes awe-inspiring, fulfilling so many “I can’t believe I actually am looking at a playable area,” sometimes from a distance, with nary a loading screen to be seen. Combined with the sheer biome diversity of its six different major areas, Rebirth perfectly captures the continental diversity of Gaia with excellence. It’s such a beautiful world to explore and get lost in for hours on end while completing its litany of side activities on offer.

As the second attempt by Square-Enix to fully build an open world Final Fantasy game since their last true attempt with 2016’s Final Fantasy XV, I can certainly say they better honed in on the open world design in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. At first glance you could say what they did is just hone in on the Ubisoft style of open world checklist games, and it would be hard to refute that. But, to their credit, despite how trite and played out that style of open world has become these days, Square-Enix buckled in to try to make every activity you do in the world synergize with meaning. Yes, you can find the towers that then unlock interest points in the map, but it still won’t unlock the map, so there is still a certain push for exploration that’s encouraged, along with some diegetic design choices such as birds and chocobos leading you to points of interest without needing a tower to find them. It’s the tiny details like these that help push beyond the trite design, for the most part.

As for open world activities, you have a mix of beast hunts that will help train you to better use the combat system to the fullest, lifestream wells that give you lore information on how the biome you are in has or hasn’t been damaged by Shinra’s resource drains, summon areas that will help your annoying/overbearing robot friend Chadley and his female AI, “MAI,” lower the difficulty of Summon boss fights to acquire their Materia, and other activities. The only issue is that, other than Chadley’s Protorelic quests which provide the one unique quest per biome (where elements like the mini-game Fort Condor come into play), you don’t see much variety in Chadley’s activities further into the game, which weighs on you if you go for a 100% completion run on all areas like I did.

As enjoyable as it was for me to 100% all areas, even if the activity diversity didn’t keep up, there was only one issue I had with the open world as a whole: the ways you navigate a few of these biomes. For the most part, the control scheme introduced in Remake holds up well in transitioning to Rebirth’s open environment, with the one big addition being the “Terrain Action” move that allows you to climb specific terrain compared to Remake’s more flat terrains. While it’s great the game allows for more verticality, I don’t know if it would have hurt them to include a legit jump button this time around, especially since there are some map layouts, like the Gongaga region, which can be tough to navigate if you decide to 100% it. The area is full of verticality, and you need to use the region’s Chocobo to jump on mushrooms to reach said areas, but it sometimes will send you where you may not intend. The control scheme, for sure, works where there’s more openness in the environment, so when it narrows the space, it becomes frustrating when what you can climb is inconsistent.

A Queen’s Blood

While there is so much to praise about the world variety on display, I’d be remiss not to mention the amount of mini-game activities that they have thrown at you this time around, which is an ode and key element to this section of the original game. While maybe not as obsessive in size like a similar role playing game released earlier this year in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the mini-games on offer for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth absolutely run the gamut in variety, and I am surprised how they were able to include some that were straight from the original game and then some.

For what they brought back from the original game, things like the marching band that’s a big element from an earlier chapter was perfectly recreated in this installment. Fort Condor (reintroduced in the Intermission DLC and expanded upon here), motorcycle racing, chocobo racing, and 3D boxing all show up in Rebirth. But then there’s more, like a tower defense mini-game in the Cosmo Canyon’s Protorelic quest, flying chocobo ring flying in the same area, animal soccer and shooting ranges in the Costa del Sol region, box busting combat races and combat arenas, and then this little card game called “Queen’s Blood.”

Similar in vein to the Triple Triad card game from Final Fantasy VIII or even Gwent from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I can’t stress enough how many hours I played Rebirth’s card game offering. While initially confusing, once you get into the flow of the chess-like territory control of “Queen’s Blood,” everything clicks into gear and becomes endlessly, hopelessly addictive. Even when so much success may rely on the RNG of your first five cards, you can get in and out of a game so swiftly to restart an attempt for the perfect run. You may spend hours on end trying to beat every single opponent as you make your way through this card game’s questline. Needless to say, taking this questline to its end delivered a shockingly dark and chilling conclusion that made the journey worth it. If Square Enix takes CD Projekt Red’s example and decides to release this card game as a standalone offering, I’ll be the first one lining up. It’s that good.

As fun as the mini-games can be, they do come with the caveat that they sometimes are forced on you to complete some main quests, which have a different feeling than just optionally engaging on the activities on your own. While there are a few segmented off to side activities in the early goings that you can easily skip if you are not feeling it (on top of a Queen’s Blood tournament from Chapter 5 which you can opt out of entirely, even though I recommend you try it since the payoff is worthy), once you reach the Golden Saucer, you will have to engage in all the mini-games on display here in order to progress the story. As a fan of the variety they inject to the game, I had no problem with their inclusion in this section of the main path. But I can imagine how some would be irked at being forced to do them as part of a main quest, especially when plot momentum at this point still hasn’t quite kicked in.

While not everything hits the bullseye, I still enjoyed the inclusion of these mini-game distractions, as the variety they inject to the game on top of the mostly excellent side quests, especially regarding how it all is tied together at the end, is a big part of what made Rebirth so satisfying. My issues have only shown during my OCD completionist nature more than what some people not as obsessive as I am will find if they engage with the game at a more leisurely pace.

Phoenix Rise

As tradition dictates, a Final Fantasy game is usually a feast for the eyes and ears, no matter when it comes, and I would say Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth fits right into that mold. As I mentioned before, the environmental diversity and detail at this scale is a sight to behold, and the fact it’s as varied and detailed as it is, from not just environments but also the characters while also being so seamless in its biome transitions, is nothing short of remarkable.

However, as great-looking as it mostly is, the size of the endeavor doesn’t come without a few caveats. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, there are a few inconsistencies that show up here and there that were remnants of the tech used in Remake that remain in place in the transition to an open world. For one, the engine’s propensity for pop in, which plagued the major environments in Remake, is sometimes on full display, with some textures in more out-of-bound regions not loading or not showing the same amount of details as others, creating an inconsistent look. Also, the use of baked lighting can sometimes work perfectly to set up a specific mood for certain scenes, but then it makes how they lit some environments in open world exploration seem unnaturally too bright or too dark in some transitions. Yes, it may be a looker for the most part, but it can be quite inconsistent.

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth offers both a Graphics and a Performance mode, and, in this case, my recommendation for which mode to pick is tricky. Starting with Performance mode: compared to last year’s Final Fantasy XVI, which had an erratic frame rate in that mode throughout and only smoothing itself out in the combat sections, Rebirth absolutely holds a more rock solid performance throughout, feeling closer to a locked 60fps with few dips, which is impressive for a game of this scale and size.

However, unlike the PlayStation 5 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake, the visual sacrifice to reach that rock solid frame rate is actually quite severe between the two modes. Resolution is significantly lower on the Performance mode, which isn’t a problem in the more enclosed areas of the game but takes a bigger hit in the more lush open environments where detail gets blurred out. The fast nature of the combat and the responsiveness of the Performance mode is such that I totally get picking it with how nice it feels. But, considering how beautiful the game looks in Graphics mode and how rock solid it runs in that mode, I don’t have a problem recommending playing there if you feel the visual hit is quite severe. I certainly switched between modes often, and word of a patch that will try to fix the blurriness of the Performance mode coming sometime soon may alleviate some issues.

As for the soundtrack, all I can say is, “My God.” Picking the baton from the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, composers Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu continue the excellent work of modernizing the classic soundtrack from the original with a euphoric sense of grandeur worthy of the re-imagining of this game. While some motifs may sometimes go a little too epic for some scenes, I can’t say they don’t fulfill the purpose of injecting the perfect melodrama to key scenes. The one new addition by Uematsu, the theme song “Promises to Keep,” helped deliver the franchise’s most beautiful musical moment that got the closest to the swelling emotion I felt with Final Fantasy VI’s opera scene. And there was a moment in the final sequences of the game, where the swelling musical transition into the final boss fight provided such euphoric emotion, I had tears in my eyes. Music has always been the secret sauce for Final Fantasy, and Rebirth delivers that in ways I’ll just never forget.

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At Journey’s End

When you have a game as massive as Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, with the weight of legacy on top of its shoulders and insurmountable expectations, it could be easy to think it could buckle under the weight of such expectations. But even with some of the sections I mentioned that may be less than stellar and an ending I’m still digesting days after finishing, mulling its implications, I can’t look at my 132-hour journey and not think that most of what the game achieved was a triumph.

In many ways, playing through Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth feels like the dream game many envisioned when they stepped out for the first time to a world full of wonder and possibilities back in 1997. With the way Rebirth hones in on the unexpected journey and builds up its world and its characters, I can’t help but smile at the delightful journey it took me on. And there are moments from this journey that will be seared in my mind as some of my favorite in any game ever, where even the most annoying late mini-game didn’t spoil the fun. Already am I counting the days when the third and final entry makes it to market, ready for a continued journey with one of the most delightful casts that’s ever graced a video game once more.

A big thank you to Square-Enix for providing code for this review. You can find Seasoned Gaming’s review policy here.